From LaBelle, Florida for Hendry and Glades County and the Lake Okeechobee region. Don Browne, editor.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Upthegrove Completes Training

LABELLE, FL. -- Attorney General Charlie Crist this honored School ResourceOfficers at the annual conference of the Florida Association of SchoolResource Officers. Honored at the conference were eight law enforcementofficers who received the designation as School Resource OfficerPractitioners after completing training through the Attorney General'sOffice including Auxiliary Deputy Edward Upthegrove of the Hendry CountySheriff's Office.

Since 1988, the Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute, a unit of theAttorney General's Office, has offered the designation of School ResourceOfficer Practitioner. This designation is conferred to document anindividual's successful completion of a series of SRO training coursesoffered by the institute. The officer must complete 130 hours ofjuvenile-related courses from the institute or other authorized trainingsources.

With the addition of the eight officers receiving the designation today, atotal of 201 School Resource Officers have been certified as practitioners.